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Liberals press NDP over flurry of planned reviews (with video)

VICTORIA — As New Democratic Party leader Adrian Dix has taken the early wraps off his party’s election platform, he has unveiled plans for at least half a dozen full-scale reviews or audits to be launched by a new NDP government.

Dix has said his party will work with the forest industry to find ways to reduce the export of raw logs, freeze ferry fares to allow for a full-scale audit of BC Ferries and conduct a comprehensive review of the province’s liquor laws.

The party has also promised to review the practice of hydraulic fracturing during the extraction of natural gas, do a comprehensive review of BC Hydro and to create an all-party committee to investigate the possibility of public funding for political parties.

Co-chair of the NDP platform committee Bruce Ralston said Thursday he believes the reviews are pragmatic and responsible, showing the party is willing to get all the information needed — and to consult properly — before taking action.

“I’m certain we’ve been very clear about a lot of these proposals, crystal clear,” he said.

“We’ve set out a direction we want to go, we’ve set out our intention, we’ve set out a plan.

“Some of the details of the implementation of the plan require the kind of knowledge that you can only have from the government side,” he said.

“Secondly, you need to talk to people that would be affected by that before you would implement the details of a plan.”

But Liberal MLA Bill Bennett, who is chair of his party’s platform committee, sees it otherwise.

“Mr. Dix wants to put enough out there that it sounds good – it sounds nice to say that you’re going to spend $75 million more a year on tax credits for the film industry – but then he doesn’t tell you exactly what he’s talking about.

“He’s throwing numbers around and saying he’s going to do good things that he thinks will be popular, but he’s not actually saying specifically what he’s going to do and how he’s going to do it.”

(While the Liberals said the expanded film tax credit proposed by the NDP would cost an additional $75 million a year, the NDP said it would cost $45 million.)

Veteran political observer and University of Victoria professor emeritus Norman Ruff said he believes Dix is not so much hiding as executing a strategy that will help him both win the election, and govern after it’s over.

“It reflects his overall stance, and that’s to dampen the overall expectations, on both sides.”

Ruff said Dix needs to calm the fears of his traditional opponents and assure them he is not embarking on a radical agenda.

“What Dix is trying to do is say, ‘We’re ready to govern. You can trust us, there aren’t going to be any big surprises. We’re not going to go ahead with a highly progressive agenda right away.’”

At the same time, Ruff said, Dix needs to manage the expectations within his own party, by promising only what he believes he could practically deliver within a four-year mandate.

“I think that’s probably Dix’s ambition. Not just to win this election, but also to win 2017.”

Ruff said Premier Christy Clark is also hedging with her election-campaign promises, citing her pledge to eliminate the province’s debt with revenues from the export of liquefied natural gas, an industry that doesn’t yet exist in B.C.

“Christy Clark is taking refuge in what might happen 15 years down the road. She’s promising pie in the sky,” he said.

“I guess he (Dix) is offering us a cookbook.”

Michael Prince, professor of social policy at the University of Victoria, said he thinks there’s credence to Ralston’s argument that the NDP — which has been in opposition for more than a decade — doesn’t have access to the information it needs to formulate detailed policy on every issue.

He said this is especially true in B.C., given how seldom the legislature actually sits to debate such issues.

“I grew up in Toronto where Queen’s Park, the legislature, met maybe 90 or 100 days of the year every year. It was a full-time parliament,” he said.

“What we’ve got running here is like a weekend getaway club.”

Prince noted the NDP platform rollout is expected to continue into early next week, meaning other reviews may be likely. He said he expects to see one looking into the controversial government support agency Community Living B.C.

In an interview Thursday, Ralston said the B.C. Liberals have announced several of their own reviews in their platform, such as a core review of government, a review of film incentives and a 2014 referendum to determine the next funding model for TransLink.

“I think it’s very much like their fiscal arguments where the premier attacks us for wanting to run up a whole bunch of debt when she’s proposing a dramatic increase in the debt on her watch.

“Blow as much smoke as you can, seems to be their strategy.”

But Bennett said the reviews the Liberals have promised are tweaks to existing policies, while the NDP reviews are standing in the place of policy.

“The reviews we’re talking about are not reviews that are going to lead to major policy decisions or major policy changes,” he said.

“The reviews they are promising to do come before their major policy statement on whatever field we’re talking about.”

Bruce Ralston, co-chair of the NDP platform committee, says a series of reviews and audits announced by his party show it is willing to get all the information needed and consult properly before taking action. The B.C. Liberals complained Thursday that the NDP reviews are standing in the place of policy.

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